A look at Rebellion Automotive's CLA45/A45/GLA45 tuning product offering including their Stage I and Stage II M133 turbo upgrade

[Sticky]

Rebellion Automotive is a UK based tuner carving out a name for themselves in the AMG M133 four-cylinder turbo niche. This motor powers the 45 AMG models including the CLA45, A45, and GLA45. Many people stated that with a 355 horsepower 2.0 liter four-cylinder the engine was maxed out and as tuners such as Rebellion are proving that is hardly the case. They have a Stage I upgrade for the motor available already and a Stage II turbo upgrade is on the way.

Let's take a look at their Stage I upgrades first. Like other tuners, Rebellion offers a piggyback box for the M133. They price their unit at 665 British Pounds. For that money you get in an increase in power from 359 horses at the crank to 401. A solid gain of 42 crank horsepower. Torque rises quite a bit from 337 lb-ft to 394 lb-ft.

The Stage I is a solid offering and similar to what other tuners get with a piggyback box. All these Stage I offerings in this segment are pretty similar at this point. Where Rebellion begins to diverge is with their Stage II turbo upgrade. This is a mild upgrade that uses the OEM housing with modified internals. The piggyback still controls the ECU.

What does output go to? Torque rises to an impressive 449 lb-ft. 55 lb-ft more than the Stage I tuned M133. Horsepower goes up by roughly 30 peak horsepower does not show the torque gained under the curve which is where the upgrade really shines.

For £2800 the upgrade is priced fairly considering as of right now there is no stronger turbo upgrade option in the M133 aftermarket.

M133 tuning is still in its infancy but Rebellion Automotive's upgrades show the future is bright for the platform.

[ezec63]

Good stuff sticky !! I see you did your research. Few things id like to note since I did a lot of reading picking the tuner for my brothers car. The initial stage 1 results and dynos you posted up are from V1 piggyback they now released V2 that I have it was the first batch in the US and just released 2 weeks ago. Torque is similar but top end has improved to ~415 crank hp ! Same #'s add renntech and the new v2 box looks to be the same high quality hardware as renntechs. Car is a pocket rocket

The stage 2 numbers are low because all the car has is turbo and piggyback on pump. Once they get downpipes on it with an after market intake and race gas you can expect that number to jump up significantly.

I'm also in talks with them to test out the new TCU tune they have been developing. They are the only ones to get access to it and I'm excited about trying it out. The car has obvious torque limiters in 1st and 2nd gear that sometimes causes it to short shift at 6,000 rpm and it's super frustrating since this motor makes power uptop. This will solve that and cut shifts times/modify launch control. Rebellion is the real deal

[Sticky]

I'd have to see some V2 dynos. Yes, the numbers I posted were early figures as that is all they really had on their site.

No doubt the numbers will improve across the board. This is very early.

[Acej]

I tested the the piggy back box on my R231 SL63 and am planning to do the same with the TCU plug and play soon. The piggy back gave me 628BHP & 840nm and I was very pleased. It will be interesting to test the TCU unit 0-60 & 0-100 with a vbox and I will let you know how it goes. I have a RADO down pipes and sports cat being insatlled in the next few days then once its ready the TCU unit will follow. I will let you know how it goes.

[Sticky]

Their M157 tune is a piggyback?

[Acej]

Yep just posted a thread under R231

[Sticky]

Yep just posted a thread under R231

I'll take a look.

[0-60Motorsports]

Very cool